† This may refer to Ahmed Ressam and his cooperation with U.S. authorities. See footnote here.
* The redacted pronouns and the descriptions “the person closest to me” and “the only one I could relate to” suggest that this may be the female member of the Special Projects Team who previously led the second-shift interrogations. See footnote here.
* “Ahmed L.” appears in the manuscript unredacted. This could refer to Ahmed Laabidi, a Tunisian national who lived in Montreal in 2000 and was later detained in the United States on an immigration violation. Laabidi was held in U.S. immigration custody and then deported to Tunisia in September 2003. See footnote here for more on Laabidi.
† Bob Barker Company, Incorporated, which identifies itself as “America’s Leading Detention Supplier,” is a major supplier of prison uniforms for the U.S. Department of Defense. See http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=20020112&id=6gJPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Ux8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5765,3098702.
* MOS may be referring to the distance between the isolation cell where he is being held and the main detention blocks of Camp Delta, where he was held previously.
* “Her” appears here unredacted.
* “Hannachi” might refer to Raouf Hannachi, a Tunisian-born Canadian citizen who also lived in Montreal in 2000. It appears from MOS’s 2008 Detainee Assessment and from MOS’s habeas corpus decision that confessions like those MOS is describing here became part of the government’s allegations against him. Both Hannachi and Ahmed Laabidi appear in both the 2008 Detainee Assessment and Judge James Robertson’s 2010 habeas memorandum order; in both the government portrays MOS, Hannachi, and Laabidi as members of a Montreal cell of al-Qaeda, with Hannachi as the cell’s leader and Laabidi as the cell’s financier. A footnote to Judge Robertson’s opinion specifically notes that MOS’s statement under interrogation that “Laabidi [is] a terrorist who supported use of suicide bombers” came in an interrogation session dated September 16, 2003—right around the time of the scene MOS describes here. The 2008 Detainee Assessment is available at http://projects.nytimes.com/guantanamo/detainees/760-mohamedou-ould-slahi. Detainee Assessment, 10; Memorandum Order, 26–28.
* MOS indicates later in the manuscript that he remained in the same cell he was delivered into at the end of his staged abduction through the time of the manuscript’s creation. There are no indications that he has been moved since. A 2010 Washington Post report described a “little fenced-in compound at the military prison” that matches the description of his living situation at the time the manuscript was written. See Peter Finn, “For Two Detainees Who Told What They Knew, Guantanamo Becomes a Gilded Cage,” Washington Post, March 24, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032403135.html. MOS manuscript, 233.
* Context, including the unredacted word “poly” a bit farther into this passage, suggests that the subject of this conversation and the long redaction that follows could be the polygraph exam MOS describes toward the end of his ARB testimony. After recounting the boat trip and its aftermath, MOS stated, “Because they said to me either I am going to talk or they will continue to do this, I said I am going to tell them everything they wanted.… I told them I was on my own trying to do things and they said write it down and I wrote it and I signed it. I brought a lot of people, innocent people with me because I got to make a story that makes sense. They thought my story was wrong so they put me on [a] polygraph.” ARB transcript, 27.
* “Poly” appears here unredacted.
* In The Terror Courts, Jess Bravin published details of a polygraph examination of MOS that he dates to October 31, 2004. Bravin reported that MOS answered “No” to five questions about whether he knew about or participated in the Millennium and 9/11 plots, and whether he was concealing any information about other al-Qaeda members or plots. The results, according to Bravin, were either “No Deception Indicated” or “No Opinion”—results that Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, the Military Commissions prosecutor assigned to MOS’s case, considered potentially exculpatory information that would need to be shared with defense attorneys if MOS was ever charged and prosecuted. Bravin, The Terror Courts, 110–11.
* The redacted pronouns and tone of this conversation suggest that the lead interrogator might be the female member from the special interrogation team. In this scene she seems to be introducing a new interrogator who will be working with MOS as well; redactions hint that this interrogator, too, might be female.
* Context suggests that the redactions in this sentence may be “or she.” If so, this would be a particularly absurd example of the effort to conceal the fact that the U.S. deployed female interrogators.
* MOS adds a note here in the margin of the handwritten original: “Phase four: getting used to the prison, and being afraid of the outside world.”
* The description suggests the book might be Edward Rutherfurd’s historical novel The Forest, which was published in 2000.
* In this section, which MOS headed “Guards,” he introduces several characters. Everything from the opening of the section to this multiline redaction appears to refer to guard number one, clearly a leader on the guard team. Redactions make it difficult to distinguish among the several guards that follow, though this redaction likely marks the introduction of guard number two, whose tour apparently ended before the Special Projects Team interrogators permitted MOS’s guards to remove their masks in his presence.
* This redaction may introduce the third guard that MOS is profiling.
* This redaction appears to introduce the fourth guard that MOS profiles in this section.
* The passage from here to the section break seems to refer to a fifth guard.
* This would likely be March 2004—more than seven months after MOS was dragged into the isolation cell in Camp Echo. The paragraph may refer to “Captain Collins,” who appears from later passages to have remained in control of Slahi’s interrogation until he was transferred to Iraq in the summer of 2004, and the new female interrogator. See footnote here.
* Here and for the next several paragraphs, MOS appears to be recalling a previous conversation or conversations with one of his interrogators.
* Earlier in the manuscript, MOS indicates that he received the first letter from his family on February 14, 2004.
* This could be one of MOS’s guards, appearing unmasked for the first time.
† “She” appears unredacted; this might be the businesslike female interrogator introduced at the beginning of the chapter.
* Three Guantánamo-based personnel who were practicing Muslims were arrested in September 2003 and accused of carrying classified information out of the prison. MOS may be referring here specifically to army chaplain Captain James Yee, who was charged with five offenses including sedition and espionage, and Senior Airman Ahmad al-Halabi, an Arabic-language translator who was charged with thirty-two counts ranging from espionage and aiding the enemy to delivering unauthorized food, including the dessert baklava, to detainees. The sedition and spying cases collapsed. All charges against Yee were eventually dropped, and he received an honorable discharge; al-Halabi pled guilty to four counts, including lying to investigators and disobeying orders, and received a “bad conduct” discharge. See, e.g., http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-05-16-yee-cover_x.htm; and http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-09-23-gitmo-airman_x.htm.
* This might be referring to the Special Projects Team chief, “Captain Collins.” In April 2004, General Miller left Guantánamo to assume command of prison and interrogation operations in Iraq; it appears from this passage that the chief of MOS’s Special Projects Team was also reassigned to Iraq.
* Possibly referring to General Miller’s era, which encompassed his “special interrogation.”
* Press reports have identified a detainee who became neighbors with MOS as Tariq al-Sawah. A 2010 Washington Post article indicated that MOS and al-Sawah occupied “a little fenced-in compound at the military prison, where they live a life of rela
tive privilege—gardening, writing and painting.” In a 2013 interview with Slate, Col. Morris Davis, who served as chief prosecutor of the Guantánamo military commissions in 2005 and 2006, described meetings with both MOS and Sawah in the summer of 2006. “They’re in a unique environment: They’re inside the detention perimeter, there’s a big fence around the facility, and then they’re inside what they call the wire, which is another layer within that, so it’s a manpower-intensive effort to deal with two guys,” he said. Davis suggested in that interview that this living arrangement has remained unchanged. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032403135_pf.html; and http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2013/04/mohamedou_ould_slahi_s_guant_namo_memoirs_an_interview_with_colonel_morris.html.
* The “her” appears unredacted. This section seems to introduce, and center on, a new female lead interrogator. See footnote here, citing records indicating that MOS had a female interrogator in late 2004.
* It appears that the interrogator enlists a colleague to help with the theological discussion.
* The Schmidt-Furlow report records that on December 11, 2004, “after months of cooperation with interrogators,” “the subject of the second special interrogation notified his interrogator that he had been ‘subject to torture’ by past interrogators during the months of July to October 2003.” A footnote elaborates: “He reported these allegations to an interrogator. The interrogator was a member of the interrogation team at the time of the report. The interrogator reported the allegations to her supervisor. Shortly after being advised of the alleged abuse, the supervisor interviewed the subject of the second special interrogation, with the interrogator present, regarding the allegations. Based on this interview, and notes taken by the interrogator, the supervisor prepared an 11 Dec 04 MFR addressed to JTF-GTMO JIG and ICE. The supervisor forwarded his MFT to the JTF-GTMO JIG. The JIG then forwarded the complaint to the JAG for processing IAW normal GTMO procedures for investigating allegations of abuse. The JAG by email on 22 Dec 04 tasked the JDOG, the JIG, and the JMG with a review of the complaint summarized in the Dec 04 MFR and directed them to provide any relevant information. The internal GTMO investigation was never completed.” Schmidt-Furlow, 22.
* “Mr. X” appears here unredacted.
* MOS completed this manuscript in the fall of 2005; the last page is signed and dated September 28, 2005. One of the largest Guantánamo hunger strikes started in August 2005 and extended through the end of the year. See, e.g., http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/politics/18gitmo.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0; and http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/multimedia/guantanamo-hungerstriketimeline.html.
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.
To receive special offers, bonus content, and news about our latest ebooks and apps, sign up for our newsletters.
Sign Up
Or visit us at hachettebookgroup.com/newsletters
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
A Timeline of Detention
Editor’s Notes on the Text, Redactions, and Annotations
Introduction by Larry Siems
One Jordan–Afghanistan–GTMO
July 2002–February 2003
BEFORE Two Senegal–Mauritania
January 21, 2000–February 19, 2000
Three Mauritania
September 29, 2001–November 28, 2001
Four Jordan
November 29, 2001–July 19, 2002
GTMO Five GTMO
February 2003–August 2003
Six GTMO
September 2003–December 2003
Seven GTMO
2004–2005
Author’s Note
Editor’s Acknowledgments
Notes to Introduction
About the Authors
Also by Larry Siems
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
Diary and annotated diary copyright © 2015 by Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Introduction and notes copyright © 2015 by Larry Siems
Cover design by Keith Hayes
Author photographs by the International Committee of the Red Cross (Slahi) and Donna F. Aceto (Siems)
Cover copyright © 2015 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104
littlebrown.com
twitter.com/littlebrown
facebook.com/littlebrownandcompany
First ebook edition: January 2015
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376-6591.
ISBN 978-0-316-32860-9
E3
Guantánamo Diary Page 43